A dispute between former friends in Des Moines escalated into deadly violence on November 29, 2015, in the Court Avenue entertainment district. Twenty-one-year-old Edmanuel Perez, a Hispanic male, was shot during a confrontation that followed a planned encounter at a bar to address ongoing problems with a former friend. Another man, Andrew Hurley-Boyd, also suffered serious gunshot wounds that night.

Police identified Dre’Sean Barber as the primary suspect after the shooting. Perez was taken to a hospital but died of his injuries; Hurley-Boyd was hospitalized with serious wounds. In October 2017 a Polk County jury found Dre’Sean Barber guilty of second-degree murder in Perez’s death and guilty of assault in the shooting of Hurley-Boyd; Barber received a prison term of up to 50 years for the murder with a consecutive two-year term for the assault.

Were there witnesses that night who haven’t yet spoken publicly about the confrontation on Court Avenue?